Having the site down allowed for a tremendous amount of backend work to be done (a more thorough IT explanation in the next post). For those not familiar with that side of things, an analogy would be that we were constantly maintaining, patching and repairing a crumbling building. The last few days enabled the old building to be demolished, new foundations laid, materials tested and then assembled.

Now, we can, without constant distraction,...

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Hope no one minds but I'm going to close/lock this thread and correspond directly with the posters above via email. Juggling a few too many things atm, still IT stuff :dunno: .

goulaigan will be first on my list of emails. The email will be called rsync nightmare.

:) Thanks again for the above,
Pat

P.S. That busy that Sarah and I haven't even had a beer together in the last fortnight :O

The following problems should only affect a tiny fraction of users.
If using Google Chrome, you may find ; upon registration, after solving the Captcha or 'Sortable' correctly you are told you are incorrect; not being able to login using your proper username and password; when posting, finding the 'Add Files' button not working.

Solution/s

This problem is extremely rare although a few users on other phpBB forum software...

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Got a strange one Pat & Sarah. I received a My first post notification so I clicked on it...It took me to page 324 . Seems to be 327 pages :think: :think: :think: Tried it 3x and same result..I went back to yesterdays email and the notification went through properly ..
J

As mentioned in the post 2017 - A Major New Year for the Site , an incredible amount of work has been spent on the new site structure, which will make the information on BIABrewer.info fast and easy to find.

In this thread, I'll try to explain the coming changes in a series of posts, which I'll endeavour to write every few days or so. These updates will include, but not be limited to:

Why 2017 and Not...

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NOTE: IF YOU USE GMAIL, PLEASE ADD OUR WEBMASTER EMAIL TO YOUR LIST OF SAFE SENDERS
Hi there shetc and thanks for your questions.

In the temporary skin (the one with green header) active topics can be changed at the bottom. In the Gold skin, this option is accessed by clicking the filter button arrowed in the pic below BUT that button is failing (see Update below).

In the new site structure, recipes will be much easier to find but I like your idea of being able to search for posts with...

It's been a while since I had time to think about my next batch, but things are settling down and I'm tweaking my current recipe.
In reviewing the attached recipe I see that in section A and B under SRM the sum comes up with a Value! notice. Typically on Excel spreadsheets I see this when I've messed up a formula. If I play around with numbers I don't seem to be able to get it to go away. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks as always

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Thanks for looking. You were right MS, I plugged in .01 for the Maltodextrin and viola!

There is a fair bit on the net about reiterating mashes and I read a good deal of it before I considered doing it, it works but water treatment is a bitch, you are more or less guessing after the first mash. Fortunately I was able to get advice from a much more experienced and able brewer.
Even so I resorted to a pH meter and constant checking it didn't go badly and although much too young to be at it's best the beer seems to be progressing well which is what's important.

This is in the intermediate forum because beginners would never have this problem.

The Background

Brewed a very simple recipe a few weeks ago, very few malts and only one hop spread over two additions. On transfer from primary to secondary, had a taste and pretty puckering. It was an ale so in secondary, I ramped up the temp but tasted today and, it is going to be ditched.

What Went Wrong?

Definitely one thing, possibly two...

Yeast: The yeast I used was a dried one, just bought, but,...

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I have now stuck permanent markers where I can easily get to them.

I started doing that too, but then mistakenly used permanent on my whiteboard I use for my brew days.
They are now strictly separated. :idiot:

So we got a small place rented out all for brewing! Yay. :champ: It's a small wooden building with concrete floor, an old sauna. I've just started thinking that if we boil two large brews there back-to-back in one day, and evaporate something like 20+ liters of water into the ceiling, won't that cause problems...? So what are our options? I was thinking if we would put up a plastic tarp above the kettle, with one corner lower than the others, would the condensating water drip nicely down from...

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An urn is one of those large electric coffee pots, right? Urn is not a common term over here in the United States, and not for that...

Okay sounds good. I would still be cautious about brewing inside unless you have a good system to get rid of the steam / moisture. JMHO.

I need some help.
I am looking at brewing a recipe from Gordon Strong's book - Modern homebrew recipes.
Now i am trying to convert the recipe into biabacus.
But i am not sure of the VAW.

This is the info the book gives me.
Batch size / final volume :headhit:: 25L (This is the issue as i am not sure if this is VAW)
OG: 1063
Efficiency: 70%
Mash: 60min @ 64C
Kettle volume: 32L
Boil: 90min
VIF: 21L

Please see if my recipe detectiveness is correct. :peace:

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PP and MS

Thank you both very for you assistance. :thumbs:
It with help from guys like you that makes learning how to brew an absolute joy. :clap: :clap: :clap:

Morebeer is having an Xmas sale with 12% off most things on their site. This includes their Russian River's Pliny the Elder kit , which is $51 (with yeast), or $44.88 after the 12% discount. I reckon it would cost at least $62 if I bought the ingredients from my local homebrew shop. So I'm kinda into the idea of brewing this great IPA at a somewhat reduced price. Question: How hard is it to set up the recipe in the BIABacus? Below...

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Well, the MoreBeer's Pliny the Elder tastes pretty damn good. I haven't tried the real thing in a few years so not sure how close it is, but I'd buy kit again for sure.

I downloaded a copy of Experimental Homebrewing (Beechum & Conn, 2014) from Amazon for 3 clams American. Naturally, I wondered if the recipes could be made with integrity in the BIABacus. I have outlined below some of the information provided in the introduction to the book:

Basic Assumptions (some assumptions not shown)
Most recipes assume a 5.5-gallon batch at 75 percent efficiency. If your batch size or efficiency are different, be sure to adjust grain amounts...

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Hey Steve :peace:, I remember scanning the above just after you posted it, and, like you, noticed the 12 weeks in primary. That would definitely be a typo, maybe they meant 1-2 weeks in primary?.

I'm 39 and recently diagnosed with heart failure, and have been told by my docs no alcohol for the foreseeable future. Which is a shame as I was enjoying my BIAB endeavors and had a number of successful brews under my belt. So these days I'm drinking Cooper Birrell (0.5% abv) or the Holsten (0.0%) reluctantly, but would like to try brewing my own if possible. I've read that one way to remove the alcohol from beer is to reheat after...

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Three quick thoughts, least valuable first ;)...

3. The BrewDog DIY is something we've had a lot of trouble interpreting .

2. Low alcohol beers are a tremendous amount of work so....

1. Don't brew, or, if you do, blend.

Blending is Excellent!

If you really want to brew, then that's great, however, consider the following first...

You're in Perth so you'll know of Nail Red Ale (6.0%ABV). Mix 1 part of that with 4 or 5 parts of your Birrell. You'll be amazed at how much flavour and aroma...

Well, I'm posting this under Intermediate because I meet the criteria, but barely.
I'm getting prepped to brew my 2nd batch of SNPA Clone, and want to up the IBU's slightly as well as the hop aroma. My last batch was pretty mild to my taste, but I liked the beer in general. Original IBUs were 32.7. So my questions are:
1. Is going from an IBU of 32.7 to 37.1 a big jump, a baby step, or a Goldilocks just right?
2. My 1st batch had 32.7 grams of 7.8% AA Cascade hops added at 5 minutes and 32.7...

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Hi Streamer,

I would give it a shot without adjusting the Perle addition... My opinion. Give it a shot. I think you will be okay. And let me know how you like Perle at 10 minutes...

Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast says 60 to 72 deg F. I would think 63-64 deg F should be okay but on the lower side. WLP001 and US-05 are supposed to be the same but list slightly different numbers for most everything.

7 days to ferment an Ale seems like it's on the low side. :scratch: Might be done but may not....

looking for some one-over-one checks on my attempt to take Stone Pale Recipe from their site into BIAB. Any input is appreciated. I was wondering on the Mash - the site recipe talks about a 156 degree F conversion and at 165 degree F mash - which I interpret as a step mash of say 156F 30 minutes and 60 minutes 165F. But, thought I should check here before finalizing.
Here is the Stone Brewery site recipe:
And here is my BIAB recipe (also attached):
Stone Ale

Recipe Overview
...

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I am very curious about this. It's very interesting how and why they get to 75% attenuation
Starting Gravity of 1.057 and FG of 1.014 are within an APA style. APA's are supposed to feature a slight sweetness but not as much caramel of British pale ales.
The 13% Crystal malts will accounted for un-fermentable sugars for a Pale Ale, maybe more like a British Pale Ale. Then the high mash temp of 156 for sure would ensure un-fermerntable sugars.
I can't figure out the 20 minute mash...

I'm planning a Big Stout and I going to have to split my grain bill and I'd really appreciate your help.

Related BYO article :-

My plan is to mash 1/2 then this will require 33 litres of water and remove the grain. Sparge to make up to initial volume (33 litres), and then mash the other 1/2 in the wort from the first 1/2.. Sparge again to get to the correct pre-boil volume.
Continue with processing in the usual way.
But I don't know about water treatment.
I'd very much like...

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I have a report and routinely test for Alkalinity prior to brewing. My water supply is very hard, so hard that I can't use it for lagers even with additions but with little in the way of treatment it makes good stout.

In my 100 Litre electric kettle I brewed a Bag End Bitter, here is the link.

My problem is, The Gravity of Ambient Wort @ 20c = 68F was only 1.034 and the recipe requires an original gravity of 1.043
I mashed at 66c = 150.8F for 90 minutes. I did raise the temperature to 70c = 158F before striking as it is quite a big bag full and it did drop to 66c

I checked the temperature halfway through the mash and raised it back to 68c
I mashed out at 78c = 172.4F for 10...

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What I think PP was saying is that if your water reaches 70 and you turn the heat off the residual heat of your kettle will actually raise the water temperature more. Did you fill in section E on the biabacus with your grain temperature? That will tell you what strike temperature to use. My kettle is pretty thick so I stop heating and couple degrees lower to compensate for the kettle heat.

I made a Greg Hughes milk stout yesterday
I just could not get a good rolling boil, British wether/need more kw's
At the end off 2 hours I had 8 litres to much Walt
No trub to speck of, tastes ok
Is it a bin job or would you ferment it
Any advice would be great
I'am going to upgrade my gas ring

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I used to have heaps of trouble with boils. 2 ring burner, no good... 3 ring burner, no good... bigger regulator, no good...

would take ages to get to boiling, then would boil then die down, build back up etc... never a vigourous boil

what I have done is 3 ring burner with 2kg/hr regulator and I place bricks around the pot three high in alternating pattern. Traps all the heat in there! Boil 35L from mash temp in 30 minutes and hold vigourous boil constantly!

I set up to use Biabacus but it seemed to want 39 liters of water my calculations on paper and the calculations of Biabcalculator.com both came out about 33 liters and that is in line with my past experience.

I started a Belgian strong ale about two and a half months ago, it was a 5 gallon batch with ten pounds of sour cherries in the secondary. I was following the general intent of this link on kegerator . He said he left the fruit in secondary for two months to let your fruit have plenty of time to be eaten by the yeast . I don't know exactly what I expected, but the cherries all floated up to the top and have stayed there for eight weeks. I attached a picture, it looks exactly the same now as it...

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I have done a few fruit beers, last one I did strawberries but I generally only leave the fruit in for a week or so, or until fermentation activity has stopped and gravity stabilized. I haven't done cherries, but strawberries definitely turn to mush after a week. I use a plastic bucket and a mesh bag to contain the fruit / control the debris. Perhaps because cherries have a 'skin' they don't decompose as much. The nice thing about the bucket and bag approach is that you can use a sanitized...

I'd like to hear from anyone who's had experience with using maltodextrin powder. Did it help achieve the desired objective, and were you happy with the results?

The intended use is to add gravity without fermentability. How to Brew lists it as contributing about 40 ppg, and it is marginally fermentable.

Is there a way to deal with this in BIABacus so that it:
* adjusts the hop bill (upward)
* adjusts OG, FG, etc. according to the gravity contribution and lower fermentability
* does not...

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I've used malto with good results. I had entered a recipe wrong and only realized it when I tasted the finished product. After looking at my notes I was right....a thin beer :(

So I put 500g of malto into a sauce pot and boiled it up and cooled it in the fridge, added it to the keg. Now of course it is all subjective really but I felt it really repaired the problem of mouthfeel and when I served it at a party no one seemed to think it was thin and drank the whole keg up

Weather forecast is for cold and snow this weekend. I will go crazy if all I can do is sit around and watch TV.

I have a 15L / 4G kettle that BIABacus says will give me 5L 1.3G VIF

Assuming I can persuade my wife to let me brew indoors;

Anything I need to do differently for a 1G batch?

Any suggestions for a recipe?

Do people in Australia have globes with the South Pole on top?

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I'm a mini BIAB brewer with a 15L pot and am getting 9.5-10L into the fermenter.

Basically I'm mashing in with 10L strike water, adding around 5 L or thereabouts before the boil to give me a boil volume of about 14L and after Evap (1.3L / hr) and trub losses and regularly ending up with 10L brews.

This is all based on BIABacus and the withholding water section towards the end. Reaching OG of 1.05 with 2kg grain bills no problem.

I am trying to convert the Pumpkin Spice Ale recipe from Brewing Classic Styles using biabacus. In the all grain option section, the book suggests that you can add pumpkin and rice hulls to the mash. How do I do this in biabacus? Do I add them as grain and adjust in section Y? If so, what values would I be using? I assume the pumpkin is adding some fermentables to the wort, as the recipe says to reduce the grain if using...

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That's a difficult question to answer (correctly anyway)!

I believe pumpkin adds very little fermentables to your brew, there will be some but it will depend on the product.
I don't have BCS so am unsure of their recipe, but if it is tinned pumpkin, it should let you know the sugar content maybe?
If it is fresh produce then....??? :scratch:

I did a pumpkin ale a few years back and looking at my BIABacus file I set the ppg to about 1 (as it was fresh pumpkin).
I set this in section Y as you...

I'm planning to try a Rye beer again (Ratio 3/2.5 Rye to Pale Malt) on my recirculating system, the last time I tried this I got a stuck mash, very stuck even suspending the bag to drain resulted in a slow trickle of liquor.
I had used a beta glucan rest but it still stuck this time I'll give it longer 20 mins at 45C and I'm considering adding Rice Hulls.

I've never used rice hulls before, never needed to, my question is will they make the difference I need and prevent the mash sticking? I...

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I don't think there's an absolute number. It will depend on your bag, other grains used and whether or not you are recirculating.

Next week or the one after I'll brew my first BIAB without recirculation, I'll either do a traditional no chill or chill in the boiler. I've just removed the tap and drain so now I have a simple boiler no nasty places for things to hide.

Now when it comes to getting the wort out into a FV I'm inclined to use a syphon. I know I can fill it with StarSan and run it out or even suck and dump the the end into StarSan.

But I have been thinking about alternative ways to start a syphon made from...

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I've just bottled my current batch a Duseldorf Alt so in the next week or two I'll brew my first traditional BIAB no recirc or any other fancy things like dunking, my personal experience is that I'll need to add a little more grain but that's Ok.

I'm swapping over to true BIAB no more messing about with PID's and recirculation and I'll be No Chilling.

* Is it worth mounting a tap in the cubes lid?

I bottle my beer and bulk prime.

* Would boiling any flame out hops with my priming sugar and filtering into the bottling bucket work?
I'd probably have to give the hops a rinse with a bit of boiling water to get all the sugar out.

Adding the hops with the sugar would mean one less addition and so reduced chance of contamination, I doubt...

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PP - I hear what you are saying, and my opinion is subject to change without notice , or more likely subject to change after a bad experience. I have not yet had a bad experience with using ball valves (neither in my kettle, nor my fermenters), at least not with my system and cleaning process... But that includes fermenters with ball valves that don't have heat from the boil... (The fermenter taps do get soaked in cleaner, and sanitized).

I have a couple of BIAB brews under my belt now (having done a fair bit of kit brewing in the past too). Everything has gone pretty well so far, and I've been hitting pretty close to the biabacus numbers in most areas. The one thing I am slightly concerned about is that my boil-off rate seems to be considerably lower than predictions suggest. I brew fairly small volumes (around 9l) on a stovetop, and my most recent brew I hit all my pre-boil predictions, but I ended up with around 1.5l of...

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